The quest for the NWSL’s first undefeated season has ended! Congratulations to Portland for a hard fought victory on Friday evening, which handed Orlando its first loss of 2024. Like we predicted last week, we did see several starters get some rest for the Pride, though Banda and Adriana did come on in the second half. Orlando still has the Shield locked up, and the victory all but clinched a playoff spot for the Thorns.
Speaking of which…
What’s the updated playoff picture?
Washington, Gotham, and Kansas City each have a guaranteed home game in the first round of the playoffs (the quarterfinals). However, all three still have a chance to clinch the #2 seed and potentially host a semifinal game as well.
North Carolina is still locked into the #5 seed. Portland and Chicago have each clinched a playoff spot, but could finish anywhere between #6 and #8 in the table. That leaves Bay and Louisville as the primary contenders for the final playoff spot, with Utah, Angel City, and San Diego still in contention. Seattle’s loss to Utah means the Reign join Houston as the only two teams eliminated from contention.
So, like last week, Orlando and North Carolina are the only two teams in playoff position that won’t see a tangible benefit from winning either of the last two regular season games. That being said, I’d guess that Orlando will return to the normal starting XI (or at least something closer to it), as the Pride look to bounce back from their first defeat and prepare for the playoffs.
As for the other teams, you can expect players to get their normal minutes – so prepare your fantasy team accordingly!
What else happened last week?
I was hoping we were officially done with retirements and injuries this year, but no such luck. Morgan Weaver, Tierna Davidson, Tyler Lussi, and Hailie Mace were all forced to leave their matches with injuries. Fingers crossed for speedy recoveries for all of them! On the bright side, Lynn Williams returned to the scoresheet for the first time since May (and of course, it came in the Pizza Rivalry game again).
For fantasy purposes, perhaps the two biggest stories were Cloé Lacasse’s hat trick and Makenna Morris scoring twice in only the second start of her career. It can be risky to chase last week’s stats, but both are definitely worth a look if you are exploring differential options for the last two rounds.
Morris is classified as a MF, and as a rookie, costs only $75k. With all of the injuries in Washington (and the Spirit’s statement that no players will play in the regular season if they cannot participate fully in practice), I could see Morris getting a lot of touches this weekend against Chicago’s low block. Lacasse ($150k) has been a lock for 90 minutes over the last two months or so, and now has Ally Sentnor back in the lineup for a good matchup against Angel City.
Speaking of differential options…
How about differential options at captain?
Over the last few weeks, the trend of Chawinga, Banda, and Smith dominating the captain selections has continued – so if you want to go differential, you can give the armband to anyone outside that trio. Personally, I like the matchup at home for Kansas City this week, so maybe consider DiBernardo or LaBonta (or even Hutton, who’s back from the U-20 WWC).
We have another Friday night west coast game to kick off Round 24: Seattle hosting Houston at 10e/9c/8m/7p. What are your plans for the penultimate round? Comment or tweet @MansersAnswers!